Top 5 movies this weekend to include 3 new offerings

Moviegoers are expected to spend more than $140 million this weekend to see the top-10 offerings, with three new movies seen cracking the top five.

That would represent an 18% spending decline from the comparable weekend a year ago, and mark the sixth-straight weekend of double-digit percentage box office declines, according to data provided by MKM Partners.

He expects the bottom five grossing movies to be “Tammy” at $7 million, “22 Jump Street” at $4 million, “How to Train Your Dragon 2” at $4 million, “Earth to Echo” at $3.5 million and “Maleficent” at $2.8 million.

“Support from three new releases are unlikely to offset the depth of last year’s film slate, when seven films grossed over $10 million” compared with only four films this weekend, Handler wrote in a note to clients. That suggests the third-quarter box office is “starting off in a deep hole,” and could end up being down 8% from the same period a year ago.

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